As a connector of this type there has hitherto been known a connector which is constituted by multiple signal-time terminals which are spaced laterally from each other, an insulative housing which holds each of the terminals, and a metal shell which covers the top surface and right and left side surfaces of the housing and in which the shell is connected to a grounding portion of a circuit board (refer to Patent Document 1, for example). an object to be connected which is connected to this connector, is provided with multiple signal-line conductive portions which are spaced laterally from each other on one surface of an insulative cable main body formed in the shape of a sheet and also provided with a metal reinforcing plate through a grounding conductive layer on the other surface of the cable main body, and a grounding conductive portion is formed by the reinforcing plate.
In the above-described connection, when the object to be connected is inserted from the side of one end, each of the terminals comes into contact with each of the signal-line conductive portions of the object to be connected from below and the grounding conductive portion of the object to be connected comes into contact with the top surface side of the shell, whereby each of the signal-line conductive portions of the object to be connected and the grounding conductive portion are respectively electrically connected to the circuit board.
However, the above-described connector is formed in such a manner that the shell covers only the top surface and two right and left side surfaces of the housing and, therefore, this posed the problem that the bottom surface side of the housing cannot be electrically shielded, resulting in insufficient measures against EMI (electromagnetic interference). Furthermore, because the shell of the above-described connector has no portion corresponding to the bottom surface side of the housing, this posed the problem that the grounding conductive portion can be provided only on the top surface side of the shell, with the result that it is impossible to construct the connector in such a manner that an object to be connected is inserted, with the grounding conductive portion facing downward.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication 2003-272774